Elemental: Recent RSA Residencies for Scotland Artists

In Orkney, Victoria Crowe RSA split her time at Pier Arts Centre between the two most extreme periods of the celestial cycle. Her intention was to “explore the light on the land and its margins during the long twilights of the Orkney summer solstice, then return to experience the short days, long darkness and luminous skies of winter”.

Through the drawings and film work he created at Sweeney's Bothy, Calum Wallis hoped to “create a journal not just of his activity during the residency, but of the maelstrom of weathering and erosion which take place where the land meets the sea”.

Siobhan McLaughlin said of her time at Cromarty Arts Trust, “the power and unfolding nature of this landscape, the edges and movement of land/sea intrigued me. The historical cultural identity of this coastal town – the red pigment residue of a failed mining well, the imposing oil rigs and the immense rock formations of MacFarquhar’s Bed – has really influenced my work.” Siobhan used elements of the land as physical tools for creating her work. Discussing the process of making pigments from earth and plants, Siobhan said, “by using these colour palettes rooted in place, I’m highlighting often overlooked aspects of the landscape to translate a more sustained experience that reflects on memory, care and ecology. The resulting work asks, ‘what do we really see when we slow down to look and how can this help us care for our land and each other?’.”

At An Cridhe, Jamie Wardrop used the island as a source of research into how artistic works can generate a discussion about how we honour the natural world. Jamie spoke on the prescience of his endeavours, explaining “the seriousness of our environmental predicament is becoming all too clear. Our pushing at terrestrial limits is becoming visible in Scotland this Summer through wildfires and drought conditions. The North Atlantic is experiencing alarmingly high sea surface temperature levels. It is with this, ever present in my awareness, that I turn to look at Scotland and the value of the ecological systems that are around us and most immediately support us.